Three Times
by thefinalgirls
Summary: Three "unseen" moments between Audrey and Brooke from certain book-ending moments of season 2.
1. Boy Problems

_Boy trouble, we've got double  
_ _Don't know what to do_

" **Boy Problems", Carly Rae Jepsen**

* * *

Emma wasn't picking up her phone – again – and Brooke tried to tell herself that this was not a big deal. Emma had just gotten back and she was going through stuff. After all, that whole Piper Shaw fiasco had been entirely aimed at her, and Brooke couldn't even begin to imagine what that must have felt like. Petrifying, revolting, isolating. Those were words that came to mind, and of course they affected everyone in the Lakewood Six, but Brooke couldn't tell Emma that because she couldn't even pretend to have it worse. She was known for being brutally honest, so she had to be that way with herself right now. Besides, she had a soft spot for her girls and didn't want to hurt them any more.

Everyone was left to pick up the pieces in their own way and she was not ready to lose more friends…over some boy.

Brooke definitely still needed someone to talk to. _The rest of us just partied the crazy away_ , as she had told Emma. But that unsurprisingly backfired nonetheless; all it did was push the 'crazy' deeper in, in even closer proximity to the painful memories associated with recent Lakewood history. Brooke still couldn't really believe that she had lost pretty much all of her closest friends over the course of a year. Her girl friends; people she could rely on unquestioningly when it all went to shit – with school, with family, with _boys_. Boys. Jake.

Just thinking about him made Brooke's blood begin to simmer where she sat on Jake's front porch. She was waiting for him to greet her; sweep her off her feet. Brooke didn't know how long she'd been there, but she remained resolute in staying a few moments longer. Sometimes, she was so hopeful it was a little sickly. Regardless, Brooke didn't really want to go home right away. Not after the conversation she'd had with her dad. For one, she just did not want to deal with her father at all. She hadn't all summer, and didn't want to start now. For another, she'd basically told him that she and Jake were together and it was dreamy and amazing and perfect; Brooke had called Jake a _good person_ and meant it with all her heart. To go home dejected would actually sting. Maddox pride, after all.

Brooke angrily yanked a card from her purse; the one Jake had left on her car earlier that evening. She wanted to remind herself that maybe they could work this scuffle out. But it was beginning to look bleaker by the second. "'I'm sorry.' Yeah, you should be fucking sorry," she mumbled to herself, tossing it randomly into a bush in the garden. She pulled out her phone and stared at the single, solitary message he'd sent her since he went AWOL. He hadn't even replied to her messages from tonight. She felt tears welling up in her eyes, but tried her best to push her feelings back down.

She didn't understand why he was being this cruel.

That was not an overstatement. Jake knew her to her bones – her core – by now, and if there was one thing that got to Brooke Maddox the most, it was being ignored. Now _this_ wasn't Maddox pride nor entitlement. When people blanked Brooke for extended periods of time, she always figured it was her fault. She was terrible at dealing with the silent treatment because it left her with an overactive imagination. _What did obnoxious, blunt, selfish Brooke do now? She probably deserved it for being so awfully egotistical or rude or—_

Maybe this time it _was_ her fault, but she had already fixed it! She wanted to tell Jake that, let him know that they could stop dating in secret, even if her father hated it.

 _Forget this._ Brooke brought up her contact list on her cell, lamenting the fact that she couldn't really call anybody. The only people she could consider her friends for the past year had been the Lakewood Six. She couldn't call Kieran; she honestly only saw him as 'Emma's boyfriend' anyway, and they hardly bonded. Noah… Brooke hated to think it, but he always somehow managed to make everything a tad too creepy, and she really didn't need that right now.

"Alright then. Looks like you're a lucky girl, Audrey," she murmured, and dialled the number.

* * *

Audrey sat in her car and sobbed, arms wrapped tightly around herself, desperate to stop shivering. A myriad of emotions were going through her at the same time and she needed some other way to expel them. She'd already puked the second she was a safe distance away from that storage compound.

The image of Jake's disembowelled body wouldn't leave her mind. The smell was much worse. No. Actually it was the fucking message _pinned to his damn body_ that took the cake.

 _See how I finished the job for you Audrey?_

She didn't do this. She didn't _want_ this.

Every repressed emotion Audrey had fought to keep away all summer was slowly clawing its way out into the open and it took everything in her being to not scream. She had lived on edge ever since the Piper revelation, fraught with anxiety over her connection to a murderer, but unable to tell anybody about it. It was much easier to cope with when Emma was away, even with all the stupid pranks people seemed to love pulling on her and her friends. Although Audrey hated to admit it, it would have been better for her if Emma had stayed away from Lakewood. Of course, that would mean a lot of pain and hurt for everyone else here, but her face was still a great, sore, terrible reminder that Piper _was_ Audrey's fault.

And now this shit happens. Something she couldn't _ever_ share with the others. Audrey was completely, utterly alone in this.

She tentatively glanced at the empty passenger seat of her car, almost praying those little scraps of paper containing that cryptic message had somehow disappeared. That her finding Jake's mangled body was nothing more than the most vivid, disgusting nightmare; one that a creepy subconscious cooked up thanks to all the morbid talk she'd heard while growing up in Murderville.

It wasn't. She got out of her car and puked again.

Audrey felt absolutely drained and terrified, livid at herself as well as the situation; a new killer was on the loose. She totally understood why she was targeted but why _now_? It had been radio silence all summer, and if it were just about exposing her dirty secrets, it wouldn't have mattered what month of the year it happened. But the killer had let it stew for months, then sprung this up on her, and it so happened to involve Jake. A total doofus, but her _friend_. She had just seen him at Emma's welcome home party. They had had drinks, made jokes, celebrated something _good_. This was all too coincidental, which made it even scarier. Someone was watching them. Someone knew about her – about her friends – and they wanted to torture them. But what for?—

Audrey's cell phone suddenly rang and forcibly jerked her out of her thoughts as they spiralled out of control. This was starting to reach sensory overload. She made it a point to ignore it if it was Noah again. She could not deal with his enthusiasm for murder stories right this minute.

Audrey fumbled for her phone with shaky hands and upon noticing Brooke's caller ID, almost tossed it as far away from her as possible. It felt like odd, divine retribution that Jake's girlfriend was calling her right after Audrey had found his body. She let it ring out, but Brooke remained persistent and called twice more. Audrey then knew she had to answer it – it could be really important – and took several deep breaths to try and steady herself before accepting the call.

"Hey Brooke!" That was too peppy. _Dial it back, Audrey, because it's sounding a little fake,_ she chided herself.

"Oh good, you picked up!" Brooke exclaimed. "What took you so long anyway? Listen, I know this is really short-notice but…what are you doing right now?"

 _I just found your boyfriend's dead body in a storage unit. His intestines were hanging out and I'm implicated in his murder, but I sure as hell did not commit it._

"Um, uh, nothing," Audrey replied, fully aware of how oddly disjointed and jumpy she sounded. Deep breaths; one, two, three. "Nothing, I'm just…at home. Homework, you know. Phone was on silent, didn't hear it buzz."

"Okay well, can you ditch that? I am dressed up and totally bored. I want to go out."

"Dressed up? For your dad's photo-op thing?"

"Oh no, I skipped that. I wasn't ready to parade myself around for the Maddox political campaign, so I just told Daddy I was flaking. As it turns out, there is nothing to do around here when none of your friends are answering their phones and no one's spontaneous anymore. I mean look at you! Doing homework. It's like 8pm. What kind of teenagers are we?"

Was it that early? It felt like hours had passed since Audrey had found Jake.

"Yeah, well," Audrey stammered. "Y'know with what happened a few months ago… I don't think we're all too crazy for wild nights out if it isn't a house party or whatever."

"True. Okay fine, we can not go out. Let me come over to yours."

"Brooke, I don't know—"

"—Please, Audrey! I just really need a place to be. I—"

Brooke paused long enough for Audrey to really notice something was wrong. She should have picked up on it earlier anyway; when was the last time Brooke actually called Audrey to hang out one-on-one? And called that insistently? The last time they even had close to any kind of _moment_ was at Brooke's party the night Piper died. Audrey could admit to still thinking about it from time-to-time, in fact; it had been plainly nice. Honest, but sweet. A good counterpoint to the utter shitstorm surrounding them at the time.

But they only saw each other in groups since then, mostly hanging out when Noah and Jake were around. So there weren't any other opportunities for that to happen again.

"I just _really_ need a place to be," Brooke repeated. "We could go somewhere or I could pick you up and we'll sit in my car and just talk. I don't care. I just don't want to be alone right now."

She sounded so… _sad_. But not pathetic. Brooke Maddox was never pathetic, and that reminder almost made Audrey chuckle; she held it in and instead cracked a smile to herself. It was comforting to know that kind of resilience could exist out there, especially in someone like Brooke, who'd suffered a lot and lost so many people. She was actually stabbed and left to die in a freezer. Many people seemed to forget that happened, and maybe that's in part due to Brooke not wanting to bring it up too much. Yet, Audrey didn't notice her changing for the worse over the summer. Brooke had remained as she had always been – a rock – just much nicer. Softer. Much more human.

Audrey sighed, casting another glance at the damning evidence on her passenger seat. This was going to be difficult. _The cops better not catch me speeding home._

"Alright, you can come over, but give me, like, half an hour, okay? I just…wasn't expecting anyone tonight."

Audrey could already imagine the smile on Brooke's face at her quiet, "Thank you."

And in a way, that began to calm her down.

* * *

"I like your room," Brooke mused. "It's a lot less _dark_ than I expected. You really have, like, zero black in here."

She sat mermaid-style on Audrey's bed, curiously gazing around at the walls covered in posters and photographs. She had put on a sweatshirt she had borrowed from Audrey, which obviously clashed starkly with her full face of makeup and little black dress, but she still looked infuriatingly beautiful in her mixture of sloppy and made-up. Audrey couldn't remember a time when she didn't actually think that about Brooke.

Audrey was perched at her desk a little awkwardly, suddenly acutely aware that this was the first time in a while that a girl had been in her room. Obviously, not just _any_ girl; someone who could have easily been queen bee at school, but turned out so different from what was expected of someone like her. That coupled with the reality of the Jake situation played saliently in the back of Audrey's mind. She had come home in a rush, practically flew in and out of the shower and shoved the incriminating message from Jake's body into one of her drawers; she made sure to lock it too. Now that the adrenaline was dying down in her system, she was slowly beginning to realise she actually had to interact with Brooke as normally as possible.

"Why do people still think girls who dress like goths somehow hate colour?" Audrey retorted.

"Oh, you _know_ I don't actually think that," Brooke said. "That was a _joke_."

"Well, work on your material, sister, because it wasn't very original _or_ funny."

Brooke just giggled in reply and laid back in Audrey's bed, eyes shut for a moment with her arms splayed above her head. Again, _infuriatingly beautiful_. She actually looked at ease, which was the complete opposite of what Audrey felt. She wanted to be there for Brooke so badly; her call was enough of a cause for concern. But the fact that Brooke had even reached out to Audrey also seemed somewhat unexplainable considering how they had barely spent time together. Well, maybe they could if they were given a chance and this was it.

"Listen, Audrey, I've never had to be funny all my life, looking like this—" Brooke vaguely gestured to herself, "—so don't judge me!"

She looked up and gave Audrey a sly little wink and smirk.

"Wait…was that self-deprecating humour? 'Cause that's actually okay," Audrey replied, chuckling slightly too. Yet, she must have still looked visibly distracted, because Brooke sat up in a start, frowning at her.

"Wow, something is seriously up with you tonight."

"What? No, nothing. Everything's fine." _God,_ _Audrey, just shut up for like two seconds._

"You honestly look like you're about to cry, which is weird, because it's _you_ ; little miss tough girl," Brooke said. "I hardly think math homework did this to you."

 _No. Your boyfriend did._

Still, Brooke did look very worried. She slowly slid of the bed and walked towards Audrey. Brooke tentatively putting her hand on Audrey's shoulder, as though she wanted to be reassuring but unsure if physical contact was acceptable. Audrey didn't shy away – far from it; she took Brooke's hand in her own and squeezed hard.

"I just—" she still had to think of a lie, and fast, "—it's…it's Emma."

Brooke tilted her head slightly, confused. "What happened? Did she say something to you?"

"No, I'm just worried about her, that's all." Amazingly, that semi-lie came out smoothly and convincingly. "Like, she's just gotten back, and it's been hard for her to cope. I know she wants to act like everything's fine but I don't know. I just don't know what to do to help her."

"Tell me about it," Brooke said, shaking her head and sighing. "I don't know how to act around her. Like she wants everything to be normal from all of us. But we've all changed since she left and I don't even know if that's the same Emma we're talking to. Normal's gone. We might not get it back."

"I was surprised you called _me_ tonight, to be honest," Audrey said. "I mean, you and I aren't exactly tight."

"Well, I think it's time we changed that," Brooke declared. "You and I are more alike than we think, Audrey. Especially after last year. I think we both hate being alone."

Neither Audrey nor Brooke let go of each other's hand; they just shifted positions as Brooke rested her head in the crook of Audrey's shoulder, burrowing her cheek into her. They stood like this for a few moments, and for the first time all evening, Audrey felt the tension at the back of her neck subside slightly. Her own cheek rested on Brooke's crown and she couldn't help but catch a whiff of her shampoo, citrusy and sharp; it was both surprisingly and predictably _unfeminine_ for someone as feisty as Brooke. Audrey inhaled deeply, realising just how exhausted she was.

But she kind of had to ruin this practically perfect moment. "Brooke?"

"Mm-hmm?" She sounded wistful but calm.

"I told you what's bothering me." _Sort of._ "It's kind of your turn to talk now."

Brooke groaned slightly, pulling away from their embrace reluctantly so her eyes met Audrey's. Her usual giant doe-like gaze was narrowed into one of mock frustration.

"Can we maybe not? Can't we just have some fun instead?" Brooke pleaded. She flashed her best dazzling, pageant-winning smile hopefully at Audrey.

"You think that's covering it? You're doing your Miss Popularity routine again; you think just 'cause you're pretty, I'm gonna let this slide! No, come on, tell me!" Audrey exclaimed, half-seriously.

"You think I'm pretty, Audrey?" Brooke responded cheekily. _That_ made Audrey's heart skip several beats, and she had to fight the smile tugging at her lips.

"Come on," Audrey said. "We'll do fun things in a minute, okay? We'll get take-out and watch crappy movies all night if you want. I'll even let you put nail polish on me and I don't wear that stuff. But you asked to come here for a reason, so tell me what's going on."

* * *

Brooke couldn't find the words. She knew Audrey was right. Ignoring her Jake dilemma wasn't going to make it go away. Still, she felt that if he was going to keep ignoring her when she was clearly up for apologising and making things better, he didn't deserve her time...two can play at that game. It was so much easier forgetting these boy problems when she could have her _girls only moments_.

"It's just Jake. Aka _nothing_ ," she said airily, waving her hand in the air inconsequentially for emphasis.

Audrey's eyes widened slightly. "Jake? What about Jake?"

 _Weird, she sounds kind of…frantic,_ Brooke thought.

"I swear, Audrey. It's…nothing. I just miss that stupid boy, I guess. Like we argue sometimes, but our last fight was big. And now he's completely ignoring me, so…there's nothing I can do to fix things. I can only move on."

Audrey remained silent, which would have been an understandable reaction if not for the fact that Brooke noticed she also visibly stiffened, with that dark remote look she had sported earlier returning to her features. Not that Audrey wasn't a nice person and didn't care about her friends at all, but it was still strange and uncharacteristic for her to react so strongly…about _Jake_. They got along, but were never on the same wavelength long enough to have an actual conversation; from what Brooke observed anyway. So Audrey seemed deeply unsettled, and Brooke couldn't figure out why.

"Hey, it's okay," she offered, touching her arm gently. "You don't have to feel so sorry for poor, fragile Brooke. I'm not cut up about it. Not right now, anyway. Not when I have you."

That brought a slight smile to Audrey's face at least. "He didn't hurt you?"

"He _did_ ," Brooke said. "But maybe I can stop thinking about it for a few hours."

"You know, you can stay over if you want. My dad honestly doesn't care if yours won't."

Brooke rolled her eyes and laughed mirthlessly. "Daddy wouldn't even notice."

"Brooke." Audrey looked serious. "I know he's kind of a shitty dad but…maybe you should like text him or something. To be safe."

Brooke took a moment to study Audrey, still trying to figure out what else had changed over the course the last fifteen minutes of their conversation. It was only weird that she cared because Audrey would've probably been the first person to throw someone like her father under the bus for being so secretive.

At the same time, her brain was getting lazy and hazy, and she really wanted to stop thinking about boys and men and anything else to do with them for the rest of the night.

 _Let it go for now, Brooke,_ she told herself.

"Okay, okay," she said, resignedly. "I'll leave him a voice message later. Happy? _Now_ can we have that fun we were talking about?"

Audrey nodded, a smile spreading across her face. And it did look genuine. She stretched her arms outwards to give Brooke a hug, and it was gladly accepted. They stayed this way for what felt like a long time. Brooke felt Audrey's hand reach up and cradle the nape of her neck; she smiled and sighed contently, gripping Audrey tighter around her waist in response. It felt really beyond nice being in her arms, and something told Brooke not to let go.

But she was still the first one to.

* * *

 **A/N:** Another introspective piece that I'm trying out, and something that will actually have chapters! Disjointed ones, but still. This goes without saying, but for clarity's sake, this chapter is set somewhere after 2x02 "Psycho", bleeding a little into (...no pun intended) 2x03 "Vacancy". As usual, many thanks to Nightmaric for being a great beta, and soothing my nervous baby writer soul. Favourites and reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading!


	2. I Found

_I'll use you as a focal point  
_ _So I don't lose sight of what I want_

" **I Found", Amber Run**

* * *

So much blood. How could a head wound produce _so much_ blood?

It seemed almost improbable to Audrey, despite the fact that she had been covered in way too much of her own _and_ other people's blood in recent times. The human body had begun to take a different shape to her; break itself down. It increasingly appeared basically animatronic, glued together haphazardly; flimsily. It's tough to believe something like a soul could reside in something so fragile. When bodies dropped left, right and centre, it was hard to think about human life as being worth much to the universe. She was actually surprised there wasn't a permanent stench of death hanging off of her and her friends.

"Should we go with her? W-w-with Miss Lang?" Brooke asked, frantically pacing as she watched the paramedics tend to their wounded teacher. They seemed to have finally stopped the excessive bleeding. They carefully lifted her and placed her on a stretcher, and wheeled her out of the school. Not ten minutes ago, it didn't look as though Miss Lang was even alive as she lay at the foot of the stairwell in a pool of blood that crept slowly over the hallway tiles.

"No stab wounds, no superficial cuts," Audrey had heard the paramedics mutter when they passed her and Brooke. "She hit that tile _hard_. Her head split—"

Brooke continued muttering, sometimes to herself and sometimes to Audrey. "I wonder if Miss Lang has family we can call. Or we could take the car and follow her to the hospital? I still think someone should be there when she wakes up. Someone she knows. Audrey? Should we go? _Audrey_?"

Audrey was speechless, with both hands clutching the nape of her neck as she stood leant up against a locker, eyes squeezed shut. She and Brooke had been shuffled down the hall a little bit away from the crime scene and questioned by at least two different police officers by then. Their answers were perfunctory – what else could they have been? They could only recount what they'd witnessed, which was simply that their teacher was bleeding out before their eyes; they had arrived too late.

They had been interrogated separately, so Audrey wasn't sure if Brooke had said anything about Branson. She had kept her mouth shut on that front though. _The less I reveal, the better,_ she thought.

She felt sick. She could hear Brooke's laboured breathing somewhere close to the floor next to her – she was sat at her feet. But other than slowly shaking her head, Audrey could not find any adequate response within her to Brooke's questions.

She kept waiting for the coin to drop. She had almost given herself away, yelling throughout the halls for the killer. She hadn't actually believed they would attack someone who wasn't Brooke or herself. Fucking naïve, now that she thought about it, or maybe she was just being a little hopeful. No one was supposed to be there except for Sleazy Branson, waiting for Brooke, so Audrey had just busted into the school a tad recklessly. _I'm here! Are_ you _here? Are you here, ya dick?!_

That poor janitor had been so traumatised by what was happening to Miss Lang that he'd actually thought Audrey was the paramedics at first. Now here she was, anticipating that his memory would somehow clear up and he would realise that it was an incredibly odd thing for a teenage girl to be shouting up and down an empty school hallway after hours, as though she was expecting something terrible and brutal to occur.

 _He won't remember it_ , she desperately tried to reassure herself.

"How could this happen?" Brooke kept asking, her voice thick as though she was crying. "Do you think Branson did this? _Why_ would he do this?"

"Brooke!" Audrey replied hoarsely. "I have no answers, okay?"

 _You're a big, fat liar, Audrey Jensen,_ she told herself. She was exhausted, and although she didn't want to snap, she was sure her words came out a little harsher than she had intended.

Opening her eyes, Audrey cast her gaze downwards to find Brooke glaring resolutely back up at her, clearly affronted by her tone but also utterly confused. She hadn't been crying after all, although her jaw quivered slightly and she looked ill. The fear written all over Brooke's face kick-started something in Audrey and she immediately slid to the floor to meet her at eye level.

"Hey, hey, I'm sorry," she quickly apologised. "That was super dickish of me—"

"We have to find Branson," Brooke said suddenly, her voice clipped and artificially calm. Her voice was shaky, even though she was clearly trying to keep it steady and low enough that the nearby police remaining on site would not take interest in their conversation. "If he did this, he has to pay! He was the only who was supposed to be here! Like, was this what he was gonna do? Was this…what he wanted me to see?"

"Brooke—"

"He asked me to come _here_ , Audrey! He wanted me to see _this_!"

* * *

 _Say that a little louder, Brooke, I'm sure those officers are really interested in this conversation right now,_ she chided herself. But she absolutely could not keep it in anymore. Her worst nightmares were coming true when all she wanted was some semblance of composure.

Instead, Brooke was left anguished and broken, trembling from fear and trauma as death after death piled up in front of her. She was still defiantly staring right into Audrey's eyes. But she knew she was probably beginning to appear very frenzied; she was at her wit's end. Brooke had never been wrecked in front of Audrey before, or at least not to this extent. But can anyone even blame her at this point?

Brooke felt like she couldn't breathe. Her heart was racing so fast, the palpitations engulfing her entire body. It was like her chest was caving in, her lungs folding themselves into halves, quarters, eighths… All she wanted to do was lie down and stay very still; preferably forever. Brooke reached out to grasp Audrey's hand, in dire need of some support. She vaguely heard Audrey say something about taking her outside to the car. Audrey then got up briefly, and an awkward conversation ensued between her and the police. "My friend's sick, are we free to go or not?" Something to that effect. After what seemed like hours, Audrey's powers of persuasion finally worked and Brooke felt herself being helped up. One of Audrey's arms wrapped around Brooke's torso and a free hand clasping her limp one as she dragged her tiny frame up off the cold floor. They hobbled out of the hallway, the heels of their boots clicking as they hurried along.

 _Why did I wear heels?_ Brooke asked herself. _Why did I think this was even a good idea?_

They strode out to the school parking lot, where the last of the emergency services were getting ready to leave. Audrey only let go of Brooke when they reached her Range Rover, and the latter clung onto the side of the car, slightly heaving.

"I can't cry," Brooke murmured. "I think I'm out of tears. That's great! You know, it'd feel better if I could just, I don't know, get this…this compressed feeling out of my chest…"

She wasn't really talking to Audrey, but was relieved all the same when she felt a hand firmly clasp her shoulder. She wasn't alone, and that was good enough for now.

"God, I think I'm gonna vomit!" Brooke exclaimed abruptly, crouching with her back against her car and wrapping her arms around herself. "I feel so goddamn sick."

"I know. Me too," Audrey said gently, stooping next to her and rubbing her shoulder soothingly.

Brooke's breathing wasn't levelling out yet, but at least now she could close her eyes and breathe in something other than the metallic stink of blood. That now-familiar smell of iron never seemed to leave; it stained her clothes, her body, and her memories.

All of Brooke's dreams turned into nightmares each night. Whenever something started out pleasant, it always ended the same way: with Jake's limp, bloodied body falling from the ceiling above her during her Lady of the Lake announcement, his innards spilling all over the glossy stage floor. His blood would drench Brooke in the twisted _Carrie_ moment she could never have imagined. It was always worse in her subconscious. She was always alone. No Emma, no Audrey; not even her father would be there for her. And it was always a river of blood, not unlike the torrential floods down the creepy hotel hallway in _The Shining_. She would never be able to wash any of it off.

Brooke felt cursed. There was no other explanation for it.

At least the longer she stood out there, stewing in silence and thinking over the perpetual horrors that had run her down for over a year, her foggy brain was slowly bringing logic back into the equation. She was becoming acutely aware that this couldn't have been Branson's doing. She had jumped to a ridiculous conclusion in her breakdown, even though rationale reminded her of their very last exchange.

 _Your boy toy was paying me to leave Lakewood, he wanted me out of your life. He was supposed to come. Never showed._

 _Jake was doing that? For me? What an idiot._

Brooke had made Branson absolutely squirm when as she had brandished that pair of scissors right in his face. Close enough to look like she would gouge an eye right out. And the moment she had threatened to cut his _most precious body part_ clean off…

 _You can't do this, Brooke, you can't do this!_

 _Why not? Worst case, I get community service and probation. Victimised high school student lured to hotel by serial predator._

Brooke had played him well enough to eventually extract the truth. She was far from proud of her time spent in that hotel room with Branson – of _any_ of their times together, at this point – but only in reference to the scissors and the threat of violence she was evidently capable of. What she _was_ glad about was that she could stand up for herself once and for all. Jake had called her out on her belief that she had been the alpha in this 'relationship' with Branson and maybe he'd been right. However, Brooke wasn't a fool. Overly dependent and lacking self-control with a side of terrible issues regarding older men, perhaps. But she had a brain.

Still, this all but confirmed that Branson was probably incapable of wielding weapons of any sort. His obsessions were creepy and wrong, but he was a self-involved coward.

 _So why did you love him?_ she chided herself.

She began trembling again, with whatever little colour that was starting to return to her features draining quickly once more. She turned to face Audrey with pleading eyes.

"Who did this?" she asked helplessly.

"Brooke, I really, _really_ don't know," Audrey replied, with the same tinge of powerlessness affecting her every word.

"I just wish I could go far, far away from here," Brooke said. "Get in this car, drive away and never look back."

"Honestly…what's stopping you?"

Good question. There were always so few reasons for Brooke to stay. Her family had been a train wreck situation for as long as she could remember. Some of her peers at school would apparently rather have her dead anyway. It would be awhile before Brooke forgot that poll from last year – _Lakewood's Hottest Clique is Being Murdered! Vote for who you'd rather see on the chopping block_ … There were people who hated her, and Brooke realised that she hadn't considered something before; until the events of the previous year, Audrey might have been one of them.

Such an insight frightened her, possibly more so than having yet another near-death experience befall someone in her wake. _I wonder if Audrey voted for me over Emma,_ Brooke pondered. She hated being this way – blaming herself for everything. But something had to have gone wrong. She must have done something or a number of cruel things to deserve this.

Brooke wasn't always the nicest person, and it wasn't entirely an act. Rehearsed words and maintaining poise and appearance have always been a big part of her life. She worked hard to be at the top of the social food chain, or at least to feast among the 'elites'. She had been afraid of Nina; scared of her general demeanour as much as she was of turning into her. But it would do Brooke a disservice to assume she didn't enjoy some of it.

The mass admiration and popularity were a necessary but gratifying part of it – the kind of mechanism that made high school bearable until she could get out of Lakewood. Or, as it turned out, until a mass murderer decided to start tormenting her so much she went from desirable to ousted in a matter of days. No one could even look at her now, much less begin to understand what she was going through. Judgement was not new to Brooke, but her armour had been cracked in so many areas that it was taking longer to heal, if it mended at all.

Brooke had to consider herself lucky to have found any real friends in that kind of group.

So she took a few moments to answer. Her frantic eyes searched Audrey's patient ones, as though suddenly coming to grips with a major life decision*. Over the course of a few short months, she and Audrey had become… _more_. She wasn't sure what to call them. They had certainly gone beyond calling each other acquaintances, despite seeming to barely have anything in common. But 'friend' was a weak word in this situation too.

 _You're dark…in a good way. I feel like maybe you would understand._

Those words from hours ago still rung so true. She could have gone to Emma. But that wouldn't have been right. It would have been more judgement to worry about.

"Brooke?" Audrey asked gently, squeezing her hand slightly.

Brooke didn't notice it before, but she was calming down. Her breathing stabilised slightly and although her thoughts were still in a haze, they weren't going down paths of catastrophe and ruin.

"What's stopping me? I…I can't leave you. Or anyone else. I can't let you fight this monster alone."

* * *

 _But I'm the monster._

Sleep evaded Audrey as she lay in bed that night, body tense and thoughts abound. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. She knew that she was losing grip on the many secrets bubbling up inside her; the ones she'd kept so closely behind lips that she thought she'd sewn shut. Sure, she had confided in Noah, and by virtue of him being the sweetest best friend in the world, he had seemed understanding. He'd even said, flat out, that she was a victim, not a doer of evil. Although Audrey could hardly believe that, it felt really good to finally tell somebody everything.

Yet, to be fair, this was Noah. He'd been her friend for years, and knew the ins and outs of her personality. He knew about most of the struggles she had faced throughout high school, even if he hadn't always been aware of the utter boiling rage and hatred deep within her. Noah had a foundation to work off of, and their mutual trust was equal, or thereabouts. It was going to be so much more difficult coming clean to Emma, who'd only come back into her life for the better part of a year, and now Brooke, who'd known her for much less.

Audrey squeezed her eyes shut, although that did nothing to block out the rest of the world around her. The quiet of her room was still stifling.

Witnessing Jake's corpse fall from the auditorium rafters really did a number on her. Unadulterated terror gripped her, seeing it lifeless and gutless like that, and Brooke bathing in the partially congealed mess. Her subsequent scream troubled Audrey's dreams to this day.

But she also knew she had to feign shock to some extent. Audrey had burned the damning evidence from her fateful night discovering Jake's body, but there were many other ways that the truth could get out. The killer had her on video and it was only a matter of time before they broadcasted it. Be it to her closest friends or to the entire town, it hardly seemed to matter to Audrey at this point. She couldn't pretend to know what to expect with this new foe except that they wanted her to pay for something big. Piper, of course. She hadn't even suspected Piper in the first place; or maybe she simply didn't _want_ to. But now Piper was gone for good and this could be anybody out for revenge.

The only people left to trust were her fellow Lakewood Sixers, and she was lying to all but one of them.

Audrey had to admit she was feeling lonelier than ever. The killer had done a fantastic job isolating her from so many people; who could she confide in now? The first person she'd thought to approach after this afternoon had been Noah. However, she had once again walked right into an awkward situation of interrupting him as he was finally trying to do a normal straight teenage boy thing and get with a girl. She could admit to taking Noah's attention for granted, especially now that she really needed a confidante. She could be so easily implicated in anything to do with this new killer, and she had to walk on eggshells. It was just pure luck he didn't stand his ground and throw her out of the house as he was fully entitled to.

That literally left nobody else that she could be wholly open with. It felt as though Emma was spending more and more time with Kieran these days, which is… _Fine_ , Audrey couldn't help but be a little bitter about that. Brooke had really been taken with Stavo too; or at least intrigued by him. She had also grieved so much that it was to the point of distraction. Brooke seemed far away a lot of the time, as though she was using distraction as a means to steel herself from further pain. Audrey couldn't blame her.

Something truly felt bizarre. The killer had proven their advantage time and time again…by terrorising Brooke. That was a piece of the puzzle Audrey couldn't really figure out, much like how Rachel's murder confused her for the better part of last year. It felt misplaced and plain wrong to go after Brooke so relentlessly, despite the fact that she was part of Emma's close circle. Even without Piper, this new killer seemed hell-bent on making sure Brooke suffered. It's true soullessness to dump a dead body on someone. And the Branson thing? That dragged out something Brooke was trying so hard to forget and it was deeply personal for barely any reason.

It felt wrong to justify this new killer in any way, but if Audrey were to take it 'logically'… Noah was her best friend and constantly looking into the murders, relishing new info like a kid in a candy store. He got too close all the time, and even if he didn't happen to be her best friend, he was a huge threat. Audrey was the framed ex-accomplice. Emma was the original mark. Brooke was… trying to get on with her life. Attempting to find closure from all this trauma. This was absolutely cruel and unusual punishment for her.

Audrey heard her phone buzz on her bedside table suddenly. Seeing Brooke's picture appear with the caller ID actually put a small smile on her face. She'd taken it at Emma's house before Kieran's birthday party; before the drugged alcohol situation. Audrey had arrived early, and Emma, Brooke, and Eli were the only ones there. They all helped set up together and Audrey couldn't even remember what was said that made Brooke flash a slightly sardonic smile her way. She'd made her hold that pose for the photograph.

As unpleasant as that night ended up being, this was a happy memory, except… Brooke still thought Jake was alive then. Alive, well, and being a jerk. Audrey's face fell at the slow realisation that she hadn't seen Brooke smile like that since. Not her happiest, but with a kind of light behind her eyes still. There had still been hope and room for forgiveness in them.

She sat up in bed and answered the call. "Hello?"

For a moment, all she heard was the faintest hint of background noise. It was impossible to tell whether it was muffled. It wasn't particularly noisy wherever Brooke was, yet no one was saying anything on the other end.

"Brooke?"

There were sounds of fumbling and the loud _clak!_ of the phone hitting something hard. Audrey heard Brooke curse loudly, but it seemed like she was talking from a short distance away. It sounded like she was scrambling to retrieve her phone, and some of her muttering could be heard amidst scrapes and scratches.

"Fucking damn it! Finally," Audrey heard Brooke say before she received a proper greeting. "Hi Audrey!"

"Brooke…dare I ask what happened?"

"Oh I, uh, totally dropped my phone in a ditch but it's okay! It's fine! Safe," Brooke replied. "I mean I had to climb into a disgusting dark hole to get it back, but hey it could've been worse. It could've been raining and water damage and–"

Her sentences made less sense as she rambled on, and she was slurring her words. Concern prickled through Audrey's already-tense shoulders.

"Brooke, where are you?"

"Hmm?"

" _Where are you?_ "

"Oh, um, y'know what…I'm not entirely sure. I just started walking. It was last call and I didn't…want to go home."

"Goddamn it, Brooke, you went out? Alone? You cannot keep doing this!" Audrey exclaimed. "Are you _sure_ you can't find out where you are? What street are you on? Are you at an intersection? Landmarks?"

"Okay, hold up with the twenty questions! There aren't any street signs that I can see—"

Audrey wished Brooke didn't sound as relaxed as she did. She seemed way too drunk, but at least she was not so far gone that she couldn't call for help. Now Audrey wished she had never left Brooke earlier in the day. She had dropped her off at her house after the events at the school. There hadn't been much else to say other than to exchange mechanical promises of caution and self-care, but they were obviously not dealing with their respective situations well at all.

"Alright," Audrey said, taking a deep breath and trying to remain collected. "What are you doing out anyway? I thought we agreed we were to stay home and out of trouble tonight. Just chill out for once."

"Yeah, well, I _thought_ about that," Brooke said, her speech remaining lax, "and I was actually gonna just do as you said, but this house is so big and _empty_ and… Daddy's been working late every single night preparing for his stupid campaign because it's apparently more important than me!— and I… I don't know, I just wanted to come out and have fun, okay! So I went to a bar."

Audrey sighed heavily and rubbed her temple in frustration as she got out of bed and searched for some clothes in the dark of her room. She needed to find Brooke. There was no point interrogating her over the phone when there was no guarantee of her well-being.

"You're absolutely sure you don't know where you are? I mean this is Lakewood. You don't recognise anything?"

"Yeah, it's Lakewood, and it's _dark_ , Audrey!" Brooke yelled into her cell phone mic. It hadn't been aggressive, but Audrey still had to move the receiver away from her ear. She then heard a muffled shout somewhere in the distance on Brooke's end, to which Brooke countered with a resounding, "Well, _you_ shut the hell up! I don't _care_ what time it is!"

"Okay, okay, Brooke, listen to me!" Audrey said frantically. Composure was now proving to be a real struggle. "Don't insult…whoever it is over there. You probably wandered into some neighbourhood. Just… do you have Find my iPhone or something?"

"I…yeah, I do. Noah made me get it after last year—"

"Turn it on now. I'll come and pick you up."

"Audrey, _no_ , you don't have to—"

" _Yes, I do_. Sit tight and I'll be there soon."

* * *

"This was fucking ridiculous, Brooke. Honestly, more so than anything else we've all done."

"Audrey, you _know_ that's an exaggeration."

"It doesn't matter!" Audrey reproached for what felt to Brooke like the hundredth time since they returned to the Maddox home. "It was stupid! Reckless!"

"Kind of like you are though, right?" Brooke snapped.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

They stood in Brooke's kitchen; Audrey leant up against the fridge and Brooke perched at the counter island. She was sipping some water from a tall glass, looking a little better than when Audrey had found her sitting on the sidewalk outside a random empty house. Brooke had strolled into an unfamiliar neighbourhood after her long night of drinking, and simply kept walking; bottle of vodka in one hand and water in the other. She kept thinking she was being smart enough to keep herself hydrated to last…however long she had been out there. Brooke couldn't even tell. She hadn't necessarily wanted to know. She was a happy drunk, and feeling warm and slightly buzzed was exactly the kind of escapism she had longed for after such a trying day.

Had it _only_ been a day?

"At the school this afternoon? You went in there alone! And yes, I let you do it, but _that_ was careless. All I did was get drunk, you could've walked into a death trap."

"All of Lakewood's a death trap, Brooke. It's Murderville, right?"

They wordlessly glared at each other. Pressurised silence so thick, it was like having white noise in one's ears; overwhelming, defiant.

"I just… You could've gotten hurt," Audrey insisted softly. She didn't sound angry anymore, but her stance told Brooke everything she needed to know. She stood with her shoulders hunched over and arms crossed tightly in front of her, jaw clenched as she peered at Brooke through her overly long bangs. "I was really worried."

"Oh, Audrey," Brooke sighed. There was still a little alcohol in her system, and before she could inhibit herself, she added, "why do you…care that much about me?"

"…What?"

"Up until recently, I'm pretty sure you _despised_ me," Brooke said languidly. "Or at least everything I stood for."

"Brooke, that was Nina. Not you—"

"—did that _actually_ make a difference?" Brooke let out a humourless laugh. "I was complicit! I let her torment you! Like some carbon copy."

"Well, so did Emma. And basically everyone else in our group now and we're all fine. I don't blame anyone. Anymore." Audrey's expression had changed into one of complete bewilderment and concern, her strong brows knitted together. Her stance had shifted to a more relaxed position, arms hanging loosely by either side.

Brooke, on the other hand, was quaking, her knuckles white from gripping the edge of the counter island.

"Well, I still could have said something, couldn't I? Stopped it. That _vile_ video or any of the other times prior to it when they said something about your clothes or hair or you having no friends. Because we did talk about that stuff, Audrey. Behind your back, like horrible people do. We all could've been a bit better and now Nina's gone and Riley's gone. Tyler. Will. Jake. The killer's _so close_ to getting the _whole_ gang! I sure hope he's thrilled! I don't know, maybe we all deserved this. Maybe I deserve—"

"Brooke, _stop_ it!" Audrey exclaimed, rushing over and grabbing Brooke by her arms, turning the latter to face her. "You are not dragging everyone into this. What does that make Rachel then? Or did you forget about her? What did _she_ deserve?"

The shock of their sudden close proximity caused a blood rush to Brooke's head and her breath quickened. Her own hands were now balled tightly into fists, held up feebly between their bodies. Their faces were inches apart and there was nowhere else to look other than into the iciness of Audrey's blue eyes. They burnt and chilled Brooke to the bone. She could only shake her head slightly in response.

"Yeah, I thought so," Audrey continued a little less aggressively. "And anyway... out of all of us left, you deserve this crap the least. I don't know why the killer wants to hurt you this badly. We all have skeletons in the closet, it's true. But somehow I don't think yours is all that bad. I am not going to let you blame yourself when…you're the victim."

"But that's just it! I'm tired of being the victim!" Brooke wailed. The unbridled emotion startled her too. Tears finally welled up in her eyes after an entire day of feeling suffocated. "I want to be strong but I don't know if I can!"

Brooke squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hands. She felt Audrey's arms surround her a tight embrace and rested her head on her shoulder. She cried for what felt like seconds, minutes, hours, or at least until they practically melted to the floor in sheer exhaustion. Brooke's legs were like jelly, and although she could feel Audrey's own give way beneath her, Audrey's arms remained strongly locked around her torso. Eventually, one hand reached up and cradled the back of Brooke's head, fingers stroking her hair soothingly.

However long they stayed there, it felt close enough to actual relief. Brooke felt her residual anxiety from the beginning of the day finally alleviate a little as her tears began to dissipate. She pressed her face firmly into the crook of Audrey's neck and breathed deeply, letting scents of sandalwood fill her up; everything about Audrey radiated warmth and comfort. Although it was far from ideal that this was all happening on her kitchen floor, the physical closeness was beyond welcome. In their little embrace, Audrey with her back against the counter island and Brooke lying against her, tired limbs splayed. They laced their fingers together, with Brooke keeping her grip loose and running her thumb in circles over the back of it.

"I'm just so _scared_. How can I still be so scared?" Brooke whispered, her breathing skipping slightly as she remembered their never-ending predicament once more. They couldn't ever rest.

"Trust me, Brooke," Audrey murmured. "We're all as strong as we need to be."

* * *

Audrey felt Brooke's hand tighten around hers.

* * *

 **A/N:** Finally! Sorry this took a whole month but I was so busy with university. Now I'm just struggling to get the remaining chapters for this up before the Halloween special.

This chapter takes place during and after 2x07 "Let the Right One In" – probably my favourite episode of season 2. This was once again beta-ed by the amazing Nightmaric. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!


End file.
